"The DELETE statement conflicted with the REFERENCE constraint" when trying to delete an escalation actions

Version 2

Created by Senta on Jul 8, 2010 1:33 PM. Last modified by karenpeacock on Jul 9, 2010 3:02 AM.

Environment: ServiceDesk 7.3 and older

When trying to remove some escalation actions from the 'Escalation' dialogue box, select the required action and click Delete, confirm Yes, and the action disappears from the list. When you then click OK, you receive this error (or similar error relating to the domain you are removing the escalation action from):

"The DELETE statement conflicted with the REFERENCE constraint "fkey$im_esc_point$ea". The conflict occurred in database "IServiceDesk Database Name", table "dbo.im_incident_esc_point", column 'im_escalation_action_guid'. The statement has been terminated."

The error message is displayed because the Response Level that the escalation action refers to is used in an IPC record and therefore you are not able to delete it. You are able to alter it so you could change it to perform a task the same as another escalation action - for example to change the IPC to red even though it has already been changed to red.

NOTE:

From ServiceDesk 7.3.1 onwards you are able to disable escalation actions even when they are in use on an IPC record. When selecting to delete an escalation action and saving your changes you are asked if you also want to cancel the escalation action on currently open IPC records. For more details see the 73NewFeatures Guide under Deleting Escalation Actions in the changes in 7.3.1. section.

The escalation action record is not deleted from the database but is retained with an "is disabled" = 1 value. You can later query on these if needed via Query Designer using the lifecycle module and escalation action object where "is deleted" = true. You can also do the same with the "cancel existing escalation points" flag.